


All Too Much (Please make it stop)

by EternityPrevails



Series: Neurodivergent Bats [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Robin: Son of Batman (Comics), Son of Batman (2014), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Autism, Autism Spectrum, Autistic Damian Wayne, Autistic Meltdown, Cassandra Cain is Autistic, Damian Wayne Gets a Hug, Damian Wayne Has Feelings, Damian Wayne Needs a Hug, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson Has ADHD, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Good Bro Dick Grayson, Good Older Sibling Dick Grayson, Hurt Damian Wayne, Hurt/Comfort, Meltdown, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Sensory Overload
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-02-23 10:40:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23176825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternityPrevails/pseuds/EternityPrevails
Summary: While on a mission Damian starts getting a severe sensory overload and finds he can't cope on his own.(Damian is part of the young justice team but its only breifily mentioned, his also like 13)Ch 2 - Dick has sensory overloadCh 3 - cassandra
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson & Damian Wayne
Series: Neurodivergent Bats [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666051
Comments: 4
Kudos: 194





	1. Chapter 1

The minute they got back to mount justice Damian was already running to the teleporters. He didn't care about his 'team' calling for him, he didn't care about the after mission briefing, he didn't care bout anything other than getting back to the cave NOW. He slammed the coordinates into the zeta beam and flinched at both the loud mechanical voice and the beam of light that it produced. 

Luckily for him, there was nobody in the cave, he immediately ran into the deepest darkest hideout he could find. It was a small mini cave inside the cave wall mostly hidden by one of the various shelves of stuff. He curled up as best he could into himself throwing his mask and cape on the floor somewhere to the left of him. He had found this place a few months ago when he was having a really bad sensory overload like he was now, and he needed somewhere to hide that would be both quiet and dark. This cave was both of those things to an extent plus it was almost impossible to find unless you were looking for it. 

Damian had been doing well, on a mission with that stupid young justice team when the no-name idiot villain they had been fighting decided to use flashing light in an attempt to cause a distraction so he could get away which had thrown Damian into full sensory overload. He had been trying to keep it together while they finished the mission but everything was so bright and so loud. By the time they got back to the cave Damian was going to have a full-blown meltdown if he didn't manage to get away from the assaulting lights and smells and sounds. 

Damian whimpered squeezing his eyes closed even tighter trying to block out even more light. Even the sound of his own whimpering was enough to make the overload worse. He hadn't had a sensory overload this bad in several years. Damian tore at the skin on his arm, he knew he was making himself bleed, he could stop. The pain made everything else a little less overwhelming. 

His clothes, the small amount of light from outside his hideout, the humming of the vents and the fluorescent lights, the feeling of the rock. Everything was too much, it all needed to stop. He wanted it to all stop STOP STOP STOP STOP. 

He balled up his fists and hit the side of his head. He knew it wasn't a reasonable or rational response to the overstimulation but his mind couldn't rationalize anything except the fact Pain makes the overstimulation hurt less, this caused pain, this made the overstimulation hurt less. Still, it wasn't enough, everything was bad, everything was so overstimulation. Sounds felt like knives to his ears, any amount of light felt like staring unblinkingly at the sun, his clothes felt like they were made of sandpaper and nothing was fucking helping. 

He hit himself harder and harder but each hit helped less and less. He went to hit himself again but something caught his wrists before he could. Damian fought against whoever was holding him. The feeling of their skin on his was adding to his panic, it was all too much. He threw his head back against the rock craving the pain that had just been stolen from him but the person holding him stopped that just as quick by pulling Damian into a tight hug. Damian fought against the other person.

Too much, it was all too much, too much. He opened his eyes to see who it was restraining him. Through blurred vision, he saw stripes of blue and black. It was Nightwing. He gasped weakly stopping fighting and curling into his brother. "too much" he choaked out words. He felt like he was drowning in all the sensory information he was getting. Now that Nightwing was also in the small space he was blocking the entrance so it was now darker and quieter than before. "Too much, too much, too much" he kept muttering the phrase needing it to all stop. He tried to move his arms to start hitting himself agian but Nightwing was thoroughly pinning him. 

"Damian, Damian calm down its just me." Nightwing's voice was soft and comforting but still felt so loud in Damian's head. 

Damian whined trying to find words "too much, TOO MUCH" his brain only seemed to want to repeat the single phrase. He managed to get his hands free and began hitting himself again. Dick once again pinned his hands down. Damian felt sick and so overwhelmed. He wanted to die, or faint, or anything to make all of this stop. He tried to pull his arms free agian but they were stuck this time and he wasn't in the state to put up a struggle against his brother. 

He felt a noise-canceling headset cover his ears and it was immediate relief. He looked up at his brother "too much" he whimpered "too much, too much, too much" 

"What's too much?" Dick asked, whispering. Damian tried to find words other than the two he had been saying on repeat. 

"light, sound, clothes, all too much" he was calming down now. He felt Dick unclasp his shirt letting the uniform top fall off of him to the floor. Damian was already 1000x calmer. now he was exhausted. He leaned up against Dick shielding his eyes from the light and trying to even his breathing. He began to rock himself and Dick seemed to catch on and began to rock both of them. They stayed there for a long while just rocking. 

"You must have been really overloaded, to run away from the team like that" Dick whispered. He had also been on the mission where Damian had started getting overloaded. He had noticed it but hadn't realized how bad it had been still Damian ran away back at the cave. He had apologized to the team, handed the post-mission meeting over to Aqualad and immediately came to find Damian. "You know you scared them"

Damian felt guilty "i'm sorry" Mother would be disappointed in him. But he wasn't about to let himself meltdown in front of the whole team, they knew he was autistic but he still had dignity. Dick ran fingers through his hair and rocked him gently. 

"Do you want to just stay in here for a while?" Dick asked softly and Damian nodded. he was still to overloaded to deal with any additional sensory input. Dick seemed to understand that and they just sat in the little hiding hole till Damian fell asleep, too exhausted form his meltdown to even care that he wasn't in a secure place. He trusted DIck to protect him. 


	2. Chapter 2

Why did they have to have an undercover mission in a club? Out of all the places in the world to have an undercover mission they had to have it is an unbearably loud club. Each loud thump of the music felt like knives against his skin, he wanted to claw his fucking ears off. It hurt so much. He was unbelievably grateful when they finally finished the mission and got back to the cave. He was buzzing with energy, he could feel himself on the edge of a massive sensory overload and needed to get out of here quickly. Someone touched his arm and Dick had to stop himself from whimpering, the feeling of skin on his felt like fire. His uniform was tight and felt suffocating. He looked up at his team member. Aqualad looking at him "we are ready for the briefing"

Right the after mission briefing. Dick didn't think he could manage his way through the briefing. The bright lights of the briefing room and the overlapping chatter of people talking. Still, he knew he couldn't get out of this so he walked to the room. It was worse than he imagined. He had to summon all of his training to not stim in front of his team (he had been punished for that many of times while he was Robin and while he knew he wouldn't get punished for it anymore as an adult the old rule was still engraved in him). He was having trouble focusing on anything. The sound of the thumping club music still rung painfully in his head and he felt like someone had set all his senses on fire. All noise seemed to scream, the hum of the air conditioning, the scuffle of people shifting on the stone floor, the mutters. The smell of food from the kitchen was dizzying. The fluorescent lights hummed loudly one of them was flickering ever so slightly. So subtly that nobody would have even noticed had they not been so overloaded. 

This meeting was going on too loud. He tried to focus but briefings with his ADHD were already unbearable but now with him in full sensory overload he was barely able to contain himself. Forcing his stims down was making the pain of the overloud even worse. He remembered a few months ago how Damian had run away from the team when he was having a sensory overload. Dick wished he could do that but he knew he couldn't. He shot a look at the boy in question who was watching him intently with a frown. Dick tried to offer a small smile that he knew was a lie. Damian raised an eyebrow silently asking Dick if he was okay. Dick glanced up at the lights, Damian followed his gaze up and then looked at him again frowning. He understood what was going on. 

When the briefing was over Dick tried to leave but was caught by Canary before he could walk off. She wanted to talk about something related to a mission from a few weeks ago. Dick couldn't remember the mission she was talking about. He was having trouble hiding his distress now, chewing his lips and rocking ever so slightly on his feet. He glanced at the lights, still bright, still humming, still that one light flickering in an almost unnoticeable way. "hey are you okay" Canaries voice sounded like knives. Stabling, loud, he tried to find the words to answer. She knew he had ADHD, she knew he had a sensory overload and he hoped that she could tell he was going into one now because if he was out here much longer he would have a full shutdown in front of the team, which was the last thing he needed. 

"Headache" he lied. he could tell that she knew he was lying but he didn't care. Nothing mattered he needed to get somewhere away from all these lights. The need to stim made his muscles twitch but he couldn't stim in front of the team. 

"maybe you should go lay down"

he took that as an invitation to leave and walk quickly so that nobody else would stop him. He walked straight to his room turning off all the lights and sitting in the floor under his desk. He started to rock and stim hoping he could ease that overload without completely losing it. Even in his dark cold room, everything felt too much. He began to rock faster trying to regulate himself. His ears could still hear the painful thumps of the music. He couldn't take it any more. Dick began to grab and pull his hair desperate for relief from the assault of his own senses. He knew if he had been able to go straight from the mission to his room where he could destress he would have been fine. But since he was forced to sit through the whole after mission briefing he was close to the brink where he wouldn't be able to calm down without having a meltdown. 

He got up quickly pacing around his room pulling and tearing at his hair. He grabbed the zipper to his uniform quickly shedding it so that he was only wearing his underclothes. .that felt slightly better, the uniform was way too confining. Still, he paced the found trying to regulate himself. He still felt overwhelmed and overloaded. heard a small knock on his door but in his ears, it sounded like slamming. He covered his ears whimpering. The door opened and then closed again and he could hear footsteps. They all seemed so loud, everything was so loud. A hand touched him and he flinched away from it violently. even a little bit on contact felt like needles stabbing him. 

He scratched at where Damian touched him cause now the sensation of touch burned against his skin along with the ringing memory of the thumping music in his ears. He kept scratching but he felt like he couldn't get the sensation off his skin. "Grayson!" Damian's voice was a whisper but it still felt so loud and harsh that Dick couldn't help but whimper and flinch away "you need to stop scratching" 

Dick looked down at his arm where he had been scratching and realized he was drawing blood. He whimpered wanting this awful overload to stop, he was already exhausted and these could last for hours. He just wanted it all to stop. He eventually crawled back under his deck sitting in the fetal position with his hands over his ears rocking and humming loudly to himself to drown out any noise. He just was going to sit right here and wait it out. He eventually felt a weighted blanket get draped over his shoulders. He wanted to move or say something but he felt too overwhelmed to even move at this point. He knew Damian was still in the room and that was comforting. 

It took a while before he felt the sensory overload ease down enough that he could peak up and look around the darkroom. Damian was sitting on the edge of the bed on his phone. He had drawn the blackout curtains and had put a blanket at the bottom of the door to block out any light. Dick was so grateful to the younger man. The sensory overload had made him so unbearably exhausted that he couldn't even think straight. He just wanted to sleep until it all went away. 

He laid down on the floor "Dami" he whispered softly and the younger man walked over to him in silence, sitting close but not touching. It was enough for DIck, he knew Damian would watch and protect him while he took a small nap. Hopefully, when he woke up he wouldn't be so overloaded and he could thank Damian for looking after him by taking him to the petting zoo or something. 


End file.
